A Long Wait
by Abylin
Summary: Voldemort's latest failure to kill Harry in the Department of Mysteries makes him furious beyond all reason and he casts a spell which leaves Harry and Ginny alone, with nobody but each other to depend on, and making the light's chances of winning the war extremely bleak.


A LONG WAIT: Chapter One

"I thought Hogwarts was supposed to be safe, the safest place in the world!" Molly Weasley screamed hysterically. "I thought my babies would be safe! You promised us after the mess in Ginny's first year that our babies would be safe!"

Arthur Weasley was ashen faced and made no effort to reign his wife in, just as anxious and angry as Molly. "You did swear that, after the Chamber of Secrets mess, security measures at Hogwarts would be drastically improved. And now we find out that, not only were our children able to leave Hogwarts and travel to London without anyone noticing, they were all injured in a fight with deatheaters and now Harry and Ginny are missing, after a fight with You-Know-Who, who managed to make it into Hogwarts without anyone realizing!"

"If our children aren't found safe and well I'll never forgive you for this, Albus!" Molly screamed, fast becoming unhinged.

"And make no mistake, Albus, Molly is completely correct when she says children, plural," Arthur said sternly. "As far as we are concerned Harry is just as much our child as Ginny is."

"Professor, how is such a thing possible?" Hermione Granger asked tremulously.

"Yeah," Ron Weasley chimed in. "And where did my sister and my best mate go?"

Professor Dumbledore was only half-listening to the four people assembled in his office, pre-occupied with rifling through the pile of books on his desk. Something Miss Granger said rang a bell in the Professor's mind and he needed to know the full extent of the situation. He had a bad feeling that this was not going to end well.

It had all started that morning when Ron and Hermione, now fully recovered from the injures they'd sustained in the Department of Mysteries, were released from the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey told them that Harry had visited a few times while they were asleep but Ron and Hermione hadn't actually seen their best friend since the battle. Anxious to see how Harry was coping with the death of his godfather, they'd gone to find him as soon as they were discharged.

There was no sign of Harry in Gryffindor Tower but Neville was there and he told them that Harry had been spending a lot of time with Ginny Weasley. Ron seemed surprised by the news but Hermione wasn't. She knew that Ginny had a crush on Harry since she was a child but, more recently, she'd fallen truly and deeply in love with the green eyed boy. The only reason Ginny hadn't already made a move on Harry was because she thought her feelings weren't reciprocated; that Harry only saw her as Ron's baby sister. Hermione had a feeling all that would change in the future, though.

Harry and Ginny had always had a special connection. They'd obviously formed a bond in the Chamber of Secrets and, while they'd never really done anything about it, Hermione had caught Harry watching the pretty red head more than once in the years since. Then, at Christmas, it was Ginny who'd managed to drag Harry out of his funk when he thought he was being possessed by You-Know-Who. Hopefully Ginny could save Harry again now and then maybe, just maybe, Harry would realize that the love he yearned for was right in front of him. Personally Hermione thought that Harry and Ginny would be perfect together. Harry could reign in some of Ginny's wilder ideas, Ginny could bring Harry out of his shell a bit more and, if their relationship lasted, Harry would become an official part of his surrogate family, the Weasleys.

It had all somehow gone disastrously wrong, though. Neville told them that Harry and Ginny took daily walks around the lake so Ron and Hermione headed outside to find them. Coming downstairs from Gryffindor Tower, they found the entrance hall being destroyed by a violent duel between Harry, Ginny and a man Ron and Hermione could only describe as...the devil. From Harry's descriptions of what happened in the graveyard last year, they knew right away that it was You-Know-Who.

Harry and Ginny were working together amazingly well as a team and were obviously far superior fighters to anyone else their age but Ron and Hermione both knew they weren't going to last much longer. Ron touched his wand to his prefect badge, indicating that they needed urgent assistance at this location while Hermione conjured a solid brick wall at the top of the stairs, to stop any other students coming down and inadvertently getting caught up in what could be a blood bath. After that it was hard to know what to do, though. They wanted to help but they knew they weren't anywhere near as good at defense as Harry and Ginny and they were a bit afraid to do anything in case they got themselves killed or made things worse for Harry and Ginny.

Luckily, though at that moment Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall arrived, vanishing Hermione's wall and racing down the stairs, wands raised. Hermione thought they would be able to save Harry and Ginny but it was too late. With one, powerful wave of his wand Voldemort managed to hit both Harry and Ginny with a single spell. The two teens vanished and everything seemed to freeze for a moment. Hermione could hear screams in the distance. It took her a moment to realize that the screams were coming from herself, horrified by the disappearance of her two dear friends. Ron, next to her, was equally as shocked but speech, or any form of noise, seemed beyond him at that moment. Not even the Professors seemed to know what to do and, unless Hermione was mistaken, You-Know-Who was somewhat shocked that his spell had even worked.

Finally it was the dark lord that broke the stand off. He laughed manically. "I've won!" he chuckled. "The war is over and I have won!"

"You are wrong, Tom," Professor Dumbledore said coldly. "While people who oppose you remain you will never have won."

"They can oppose me all they want, Dumbledore," the dark lord said menacingly. "They won't survive for long, though because, without Potter, there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Tom," Professor Dumbledore said. "What have you done?"

"Oh, Dumbledore that would be telling," the dark lord laughed. "Just know that Potter is gone and things are going to be very different from now on. I'll be seeing you soon, Dumbledore."

The dark lord shocked everyone by apparating out of the school. Then Hermione burst into tears, the stress of the confrontation too much for her. She'd heard horror stories about the dark lord but he seemed so much worse in person. She couldn't imagine how Harry had faced him and lived to tell the tale so many times.

Professor Dumbledore ushered Ron and Hermione to his office, leaving Professor McGonagall to organize the rest of the school. "There, there my dear girl," he soothed. "I refuse to believe that all hope is lost. Please tell me everything that you witnessed today."

Hermione began to get herself under control after hearing that. The headmaster was right. Harry had faced much more dire situations before and lived so, despite what the dark lord had just said, there could still be hope. Surely Professor Dumbledore could help Harry as he had so many times before. Knowing that even the smallest detail could prove crucial for Harry and Ginny's survival, Hermione engaged her edict memory and told the headmaster everything she'd seen. At the same time Ron used Professor Dumbledore's floo to contact his parents and let them know what had happened to Harry and Ginny.

"I have my suspicions as to where Harry and your sister are, Mr Weasley," the headmaster answered Ron's question. "I just hope I am wrong."

"How did this happen?" Hermione moaned. "I thought you couldn't apparate at Hogwarts."

"You can't normally," the Professor said, not looking up from the book he was flipping through. "I believe that the sheer power of Voldemort's last spell destroyed some of the Hogwarts wards, including the anti-apparation spells."

"How did V-Voldemort get into the castle in the first place?" Hermione persisted. "I thought he feared you too much to come here."

"I can only assume that his latest failure to kill Harry in the Department of Mysteries pushed him beyond reason," Professor Dumbledore said. "His fury made him that much more determined to harm Harry, regardless of what I might do to him. And, unfortunately, this time he seems to have been successful."

"And our daughter got caught up in the crossfire!" Molly yelled.

"What happened to them, Albus?" Arthur demanded.

"Oh no," the Professor said, his face draining of color as he found what he was looking for, confirming his worst fear.

"What is it, Professor?" Ron asked urgently. "Is it something to do with Ginny and Harry?"

"Yes," the Professor nodded. "When you, Miss Granger, told me the incantation of the spell Voldemort used I knew it sounded familiar and here is the proof."

"What happened to our children?" Arthur demanded again.

"The spell is known as the temporal displacement torture," Professor Dumbledore said bleakly. "Only the most powerful of individuals are able to cast it and the more powerful the caster is the further back in time whoever the spell was cast on goes."

"So Harry and Ginny are somewhere back in time?" Hermione confirmed. "It could be worse, I guess. At least they're still alive. All they have to do is take care not to change anything and eventually they'll make it back to this time."

Professor Dumbledore shook his head. "The spell is nothing like the time turner you used in your third year, Miss Granger. The person or, in this case, persons, sent back in time cannot age until they're back in their own time. In fact they are mostly indestructible during the time of their displacement, unless the harm that befalls them is inflicted by their own hand."

"Unless they hurt themselves, you mean?" Ron clarified. "Why would they do that?"

"The spell is much more powerful than the average time turner," Professor Dumbledore explained. "And with someone as powerful as Voldemort casting it there is a good chance Harry and Miss Weasley have been sent back centuries in time. In order to avoid changing history they will have to spend most of that time in isolation. Faced with that much loneliness, most victims of this spell have chosen to end their own lives, rather than endure it, hence the reason torture is part of the spell's name."

Hermione and the Weasleys let our cries of horror as the gravity of Harry and Ginny's situation set in. "Maybe the fact they have each other for support will mean a happier outcome for Harry and Ginny," Hermione said hopefully. "From what you said, Professor, most prior victims of the spell have been alone. Harry and Ginny have each other, though so they won't be in total isolation."

"I fear that Harry and Ginny have also gone much further back in time than any prior victim," the Professor said bleakly. "Which means their wait to get back to our present time will be that much longer. Whether the fact they have each other will offset the burden of those added years I do not know."

Molly was sobbing for her daughter and the young man she loved like a seventh son. Arthur didn't look that much better but he was, at least, still able to speak. "If Harry and Ginny were sent back in time today, it should also be the day they reappear in this time, if they survived, shouldn't it? They didn't reappear, though. They're dead, aren't they?"

"I don't know," Professor Dumbledore admitted. "If they are still alive there is a good chance they will have traveled far away to avoid risking changing anything during the chaos of the last few years. That means that, even though they can now reappear, it may take them some time to return here and do so."

"There must be something we can do!" Hermione insisted. "Some way to pull Harry and Ginny from, wherever they ended up in the past, back to this time!"

"Where would we take them from?" the Professor shook his head sadly. "We have no way of knowing how far back in time they went so, even if such a thing as you speak of, did exist, it would still be impossible to get them back."

"So what are you saying?" Ron asked.

"I'm saying that it is all in Harry and Ginny's hands now," Professor Dumbledore said. "I'm afraid that all we can do is wait."


End file.
